Castlevania

Most Castlevania titles have been released in Japan, North America, Europe and Australia on various video game consoles, personal computers (PC) and mobile phones, with additional remakes and re-releases. The first console title, Castlevania, was released on the Famicom Disk System in 1986 and in North America in 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It has been ported to many platforms, such as the NES Classic Edition. Also released in 1986 was Vampire Killer for the MSX home computer, which played significantly differently from the original Castlevania, where players had to search for the exit before they could proceed to the next stage. Following that year, in 1987, ''Castlevania II: Simon's Quest further departed from the standard platforming genre of the first Castlevania for a game more similar to the nonlinear gameplay of Metroid'', with several role-playing elements such as a world map which the player is free to explore and revisit. Haunted Castle (1988), the first arcade title, returned to the linear platforming gameplay of the original. This continued with the first handheld Game Boy entry, Castlevania: The Adventure and the NES sequel, ''Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, both released in 1989. Dracula's Curse added features to the original gameplay, including alternate stages and multiple playable characters. The Adventure saw a Game Boy sequel, Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge, in 1992 and a remake, Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth'', developed by M2 for the WiiWare service in 2009. The game's content would be reused in Castlevania: Dracula X, a game for the SNES in 1995. In 1997, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania Legends were released for the PlayStation and Game Boy, respectively. Elements of Symphony of the Night would influence the gameplay of future titles, beginning with the Game Boy Advance entries Circle of the Moon, Harmony of Dissonance, and Aria of Sorrow, which were released from 2001 to 2003. It was followed two years later by Castlevania: Curse of Darkness. Rumors began circulating in 2021 that, following internal restructuring at Konami to refocus on PC and console games, a "reimagining" of the series was in development. In 2024, a remake of Haunted Castle was included in the compilation Castlevania Dominus Collection. Titled Haunted Castle Revisited, it was developed by M2, who previously worked on The Adventure ReBirth. A new game called ''Castlevania: Belmont's Curse'', in development by Evil Empire and Motion Twin, will be released sometime in 2026. Spin-offs Castlevania has spawned numerous spin-offs, the first being the 1990 platformer, Kid Dracula for the Famicom, a parody which stars the eponymous character. It was released for the first time in English for the Castlevania Anniversary Collection (2019). Various titles have also been developed exclusively for the mobile phone market. Castlevania: Order of Shadows by Konami Mobile was made available in 2007. Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls was released on September 19, 2019, for iOS through Apple Arcade. Arcade and slot machines based on the series have been produced. Castlevania: The Arcade (2009), a light gun shooter utilizing an LED remote, has been released in Japan and Europe. The Japanese-exclusive Pachislot Akumajō Dracula series is a line of pachislot titles released between 2009 and 2017. The first three are based on the video game ''Dracula's Curse, while a fourth game based on the Lords of Shadow reboot, Pachislot Akumajō Dracula: Lords of Shadow'', was made available in 2017. Castlevania characters and elements have crossed over in other Konami titles such as the Konami Wai Wai World series, Contra: Hard Corps, and Bomberman R,. They have also appeared in third party releases such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Dead Cells, and Vampire Survivors. ==Common elements==

Gameplay Castlevania, released for the NES in 1986, is a platform game in which the player takes the role of the character Simon Belmont, navigating through six levels of Dracula's castle. Each level is divided into six blocks of three stages each. He can navigate the castle's terrain by jumping across platforms and walking up staircases, enabling him to progress to new stages. Simon has a health meter, which decreases upon contact with enemies or hazards. Loss of all health, falling off-screen, or running out of time results in losing a life, with the game ending when all lives are depleted, though players can continue from the last checkpoint. Players can interact with villagers who provide hints and visit merchants to buy items using hearts collected from defeated enemies. Symphony of the Night also features non-linear exploration, requiring players to gather specific items and abilities to access different areas of Dracula's castle. Unlike the earlier 3D installment which involved navigating through various levels with a degree of platforming challenge, 2003's Lament of Innocence focused on a central hub system. This hub allowed access to five main areas from the start, with progress tied to defeating bosses to unlock the final area. The 2010 reboot, Lords of Shadow introduced a more diverse range of up to forty unlockable combos with the game's whip, the Combat Cross, integrating both direct and area attacks. Moreover, Lords of Shadow features massive boss battles against titans, where players must use the Combat Cross to navigate and disable them. Creator of the series, Hitoshi Akamatsu, wanted players to feel like they were in a classic horror film. Zombies, werewolves, Frankenstein's monster, and Count Dracula make recurring appearances. The games include folklore and mythological monsters such as Medusa, as well as direct references to literary horror. Castlevania: Bloodlines explicitly incorporates the events of Bram Stoker's Dracula into the series, and the recurring character Carmilla is based on the 1872 novel Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Castlevania mainly takes place in the castle of Count Dracula, With the exception of some games, the players assume the role of the Belmonts, a clan of vampire hunters who have defeated Dracula for centuries with the Vampire Killer. In Castlevania: Bloodlines, the whip has been inherited by John Morris, the son of Quincey Morris, who is a distant descendant of the Belmonts. Trevor is joined by Sypha Belnades, a vampire hunter who fights using magic and marries Trevor by the end of the game. Descendants of the Belnades clan, such as Carrie Fernandez and Yoko Belnades, would make appearances as playable characters in later titles. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is a reboot of the franchise, with its first game set in Southern Europe during the Middle Ages. The main character, Gabriel Belmont, is a member of the Brotherhood of Light, an elite group of holy knights who defend people from supernatural creatures. With a retractable chain whip called the Combat Cross, Gabriel fights a malevolent force known as the Lords of Shadow in order to obtain the God Mask, which he believes can bring back his deceased wife. In Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate, Gabriel stars as Dracula, the main antagonist of Simon and Trevor Belmont. The sequel, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is set during modern times, where Dracula is looking for a way to put an end to his immortality. In 2002, the games Legends, Circle of the Moon, Castlevania (1999), and Legacy of Darkness were retconned from the official chronology by Koji Igarashi, a move which had been met with some criticism by fans. Igarashi noted that Legends conflicted with the plotline of the series, and that the reason for Circle of the Moons removal was not due to his non-involvement with the game, but instead the intention of the game's development team for Circle of the Moon to be a stand-alone title. The American 20th Anniversary Pre-order Bundle for Portrait of Ruin in 2006 featured a poster with a timeline that re-included the games other than Legends. In 2007, Konami still excluded them from the canon on the official Japanese website. ==Development==

Castlevania was directed and programmed by Hitoshi Akamatsu for the Family Computer Disk System in 1986. This is possibly because Konami did not allow the use of real names at the time in order to prevent other companies from hiring people who worked for them. An admirer of cinema, Akamatsu approached projects with a "film director's eye", and said the visuals and music for Castlevania were "made by people who consciously wanted to do something cinematic." The protagonist Simon Belmont uses a whip because Akamatsu liked the mechanics of a weapon able to repel enemies, and also because Akamatsu was a fan of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Because of Nintendo of America's censorship policies at the time, most instances of blood, nudity and religious imagery were removed or edited in early Castlevania games. Akamatsu directed ''Castlevania II: Simon's Quest'' in 1987, which adopted gameplay similar to Nintendo's Metroid. When asked if Metroid had any inspiration, Akamatsu instead cited Maze of Galious, another Konami title which featured exploration and puzzle solving. Directed and produced by Toru Hagihara, Joining the staff was artist Ayami Kojima, who was hired to introduce a new look for Castlevania. She would be the character designer for several future Castlevania titles. Igarashi said it began development as "something of a side story series". From the outset, the game was supposed to take the franchise in a new direction. On release, Symphony of the Night was well-received and became a sleeper hit, but its commercial performance was mediocre, particularly in the United States where it was meagerly publicized. Like most of its predecessors, it was an action-adventure and platforming game. It was eventually released as Castlevania in 1999 and received an expanded version titled Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness during the same year. Circle of the Moon was the first entry to feature Metroidvania gameplay since Symphony of the Night. In 2002, he retconned Castlevania Legends (1997) and the games developed by KCEK from the series' chronology due to story conflicts, which was met with some resistance from fans. Starting with Harmony of Dissonance, the Japanese games adopted Castlevania as the title for a brief period. According to Igarashi, the developers did this since Count Dracula is not always the main antagonist. This continued with Castlevania: Lament of Innocence (2003), a 3D title developed as a new starting point for the series. Konami eventually returned to the title Akumajō Dracula with the Japanese release of 2005's Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow for the Nintendo DS. Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin (2006) introduced a new art style in hopes of broadening the player demographic and preventing younger Nintendo DS owners from being put off by Ayami Kojima's art. This discontinued with Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia in 2008. Due to concern over the poor sales of the recent Castlevania games, a number of prototypes in development competed to become the next Castlevania installment, which included a game by Igarashi announced at Tokyo Game Show 2008 and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow by Spanish studio MercurySteam. Konami told MercurySteam the game would be an original intellectual property (IP) when it was first greenlit as a Castlevania title. Konami eventually asked them to cease work on Lords of Shadow while it was still in its early stages, until producer David Cox showed the Japanese senior management the game and was offered help by video game designer Hideo Kojima. According to Igarashi, development on his project had not been going smoothly, and Konami had canceled it and chose Lords of Shadow as the pitch for the next Castlevania entry. Kojima offered his input on the project and also oversaw the game's localization in Japan. It was the first Castlevania to feature celebrity voice talent, starring Robert Carlyle in the lead role and Patrick Stewart. The art style departed from the previous games in favor of one inspired by Guillermo del Toro's work. Lords of Shadow was met with positive reception in 2010 and a commercial success, becoming the best selling Castlevania game to date. It was followed by two sequels, Mirror of Fate (2013) and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (2014). Lords of Shadow 2 was not as well received as its predecessor. Following its release, an anonymous source claiming to be employees from MercurySteam alleged that development on the game had been troubled. After having been moved to Konami's social division in 2011, Igarashi felt he was unable to release any new games when Konami shifted its focus towards mobile game development. He left in March 2014 to independently create Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to Castlevania. Dave Cox followed Igarashi's resignation a few months later. Recent Castlevania titles released under Konami's recent business model include mobile games, as well as pachinko and slot machines based on the IP. and released on many albums, initially under the King Records label. In addition to original soundtracks, it has also inspired remix albums, which include orchestra, rap and heavy metal arrangements. The music for the first installment, Castlevania, was composed by Kinuyo Yamashita and Satoe Terashima. The game's staff roll featured pseudonyms, with Yamashita credited as James Banana. Yamashita said she did not know anything about video games at the time and composed for Castlevania shortly after graduating from college. Under strict hardware constraints, she would first write the scores before entering it as data into a computer. The hardware for the first 16-bit title, Super Castlevania IV, allowed for a more atmospheric environment in the game, and was composed by Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo. She felt there was a link with the game's vampiric themes and the classical music she had grown up with, having studied Johann Sebastian Bach in university, and worked to integrate her style with the rock themes of the previous games. Since Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Yamane became involved with the development of the series with its former producer, Koji Igarashi. Symphony of the Night's art director, Osamu Kasai, requested Yamane to join the team, His work on Lords of Shadow earned him a nomination for breakout composer of the year by the International Film Music Critics Association, and he won "Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media." Araujo went on to compose the sequels, Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2. ==Reception and legacy==

The Castlevania franchise had sold over 20 million copies worldwide ; it had previously sold over units by 1993. The franchise has received mostly positive reviews, with the most acclaimed game being Symphony of the Night for the PlayStation Many of the games have appeared on lists of video games considered to be the best. Symphony of the Night appeared at #16 on IGN "Top 100 games" and was one of the first to be introduced on the GameSpot "The Greatest Games of All Time". Both acclaimed the game to successfully making a game in 2D while the industry was moving to 3D. ''Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse was named the 9th best 8-bit game by GameTrailers. Super Castlevania IV was named the 11th best game of the SNES by ScrewAttack on their "Top 20 SNES Games". The series as a whole was named the 4th best franchise in games ever by IGN, behind only Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda and Mario, and citing Super Castlevania IV and Symphony of the Night as highlights. Aria of Sorrow was named the 2nd best game on the Game Boy Advance and one of the must buys for the system, according to the same website. Castlevania, Super Castlevania IV, and Aria of Sorrow appeared on Nintendo Powers "Top 200 Games" list. Trivia about the series has been mentioned in the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008''. ==In other media==

Simon Belmont was one of the stars in the animated series Captain N: The Game Master. Simon is portrayed as egotistical on the show and his physical appearance differs from his design in the video game series. He was a member of the N-Team, a group of mostly video game characters who defended Videoland against the antagonist Mother Brain from Metroid. It departs from the original plot and introduces characters not seen in the game, including junior high school student Timothy Bradley, a video gamer who crosses over into the world of ''Simon's Quest and assists Simon Belmont. In 2005, IDW Publishing released the graphic novel Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy, based on Castlevania: The Adventure'', written by Marc Andreyko with art by E. J. Su. It was released in English in 2008. 2003's Lament of Innocence was adapted into a cellphone comic book, released exclusively in Japan from 2007 to 2008 for 40 episodes. The franchise has its own toy line manufactured by NECA which consists of six figures of Simon Belmont, Alucard, Dracula, Succubus and a Pixel Simon mini figure which was exclusively available as a promotional item at Comic-Con 2007. TV series The streaming service Netflix released an American animated series titled Castlevania as part of its original programming between 2017 and 2021, consisting of four seasons and 32 episodes. The first two seasons adapt elements from ''Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and follow Trevor Belmont, Alucard and Sypha Belnades as they defend the nation of Wallachia from Dracula while later seasons include elements from other games such as Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night''. The series was created by Warren Ellis; in developing the series, Ellis relied heavily on a script he had written for an animated Castlevania film from 2007 that never entered production. The art style of the series is influenced by anime and the artwork of Ayami Kojima, with animation provided by Frederator Studios and Powerhouse Animation Studios. A sequel to the original show, Castlevania: Nocturne, was released on Netflix on September 28, 2023. It focuses on Richter Belmont, a descendent of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades, and Maria Renard in France during the French Revolution, 300 years after the original series. The series adapts elements from Castlevania: Rondo of Blood. The second season premiered on January 16, 2025. Original series creator Warren Ellis was not involved in the new series after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced in 2020. Cancelled projects A Castlevania television series was considered in the late 1980s as part of the Super Mario Bros. Power Hour, a one-hour animation block of Nintendo-focused video game adaptations. Concept art was produced for the project by DIC Animation City. Only the Mario and The Legend of Zelda segments for the block were ultimately produced, airing in 1989 as part of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!. A Castlevania film was planned in the late 2000s. However, in December 2007, Rogue Pictures halted active development of Castlevania due to the writers' strike and, later, the sale of the studio to Relativity Media and possibility of a screen actors' guild strike. On May 27, 2009, the Castlevania film was reported as officially canceled. ==Notes==